Share market lower at noon

THE Australian share market was lower at noon due to falls in mining and energy stocks.

Financial and industrial stocks were continuing a positive run but that was being more than offset by resource stocks, which had been struggling for several weeks, CMC Markets analyst Ric Spooner said.

"It is the anticipation that we may see at best flat and quite possibly weaker commodity prices generally across the board, particularly in some of the big export commodities for Australia," he said. "The suppliers are increasing at a fairly healthy rate and also there is some concern about those weaker than anticipated (retail) figures we saw over the weekend related to the Chinese economy."

Shares in Australia's largest energy-only producer Woodside Petroleum were down 73 cents, or 1.95 per cent, at $36.66, while number two oil and gas play, Santos, had dropped 20 cents, or 1.5 per cent, to $13.34. Global miner BHP Billiton was down 10 cents at $35.72 and Rio Tinto had shed 67 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $62.43.

The high yielding major banks were popular, with National Australia Bank up 47 cents at $32.11, ANZ up five cents at $29.25 and Commonwealth Bank had gained 54 cents to $70.67. Westpac was the exception, easing 4.5 cents to $31.205.

On Wall Street in the US overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its seventh straight day of gains.

KEY FACTS

* At 12.10pm AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 4.7 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 5142.2 points>

* The All Ordinaries index was down 8.9 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 5151.1 points>

* The March share price index futures contract was down 10 points at 5144 points, with 16,257 contracts traded.